Module 7 introduces advanced features for distributing costs across your organization’s programs and departments. Accurately allocating indirect expenses—such as rent, utilities, and administrative salaries—is essential for nonprofit grant reporting, maintaining compliance, and understanding the true cost of operating your programs.
Here is a quick summary of what you will learn in this module:
Introduction to Cost Allocations: You will learn the difference between direct and indirect costs and explore the two main allocation methods available in FastFund: Point of Entry Allocations and Indirect Cost Allocations.
Point of Entry Allocations: You will discover how to create allocation sets that automatically split and distribute transactions to multiple accounts right at the time of data entry. This speeds up processing for recurring shared expenses by using fixed percentages or pre-defined account lists.
Indirect Cost Allocations & Bases: You will learn how to allocate pooled indirect costs (like administration or fringe benefits) to benefiting programs using grant-approved allocation bases. These bases include Direct Cost, Direct Revenue, Fixed Numeric Value (like square footage), Fixed Percentage, or Total by a Specific Account (like total salaries).
Running, Analyzing, and Posting Allocations: You will explore how to build multi-step allocation worksheets, run detailed allocation reports for your funding sources, and automatically generate and post the final allocation journal entries to your general ledger.
By the end of this module, you will be able to equitably distribute shared costs and generate comprehensive reports showing the true financial picture of each of your mission-based programs.